News

The FBI has made a new arrest in the case of ricin letters sent to a U.S. Senator and the President. The charges come just days after charges against a previous subject, Paul Kevin Curtis, were dropped:

A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed J. Everett Dutschke, the man at the center of the investigation into ricin-tainted letters sent to President Barack Obama and other officials, was arrested at his home in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

"James Everett Dutschke was arrested, without incident, at his residence in Tupelo, MS, at approximately 12:50 a.m. Saturday, April 27, by Special Agents of the FBI," Deborah Madden, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Jackson, Mississippi field office told Talking Points Memo.

When Curtis was arrested the right instantly went into the "OMG he's a Democrat" meme. Looking at the Facebook page of Curtis, it appears this is the case. But as you may recall, some big name rightwing bloggers continued to hound Curtis, even after being released. They even went as far as saying he actually committed the crime, without the man ever being charged.

But who is Dutschke? Well he is a taekwondo instructor, a musician in a blues band and a former Republican candidate for office.

Oh yeah, and the man is also out on charges of child molestation (or convicted if you go by the Jim Hoft standards of journalism).

Did I miss anything?

Wait. It also appears that Dutschke may have set-up Curtis in this case.

Yes, we have a Republican here, who may have sexually assaulted children as well as tried to frame and innocent person, and the wingnuts go silent! I guess this is part of the family values platform.

Paul Kevin Curtis, who was arrested last week for sending ricin laced letters to President Obama and Senator Wicker, has been released from custody:

Jeff Woodfin, chief deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Oxford, Miss., said suspect Paul Kevin Curtis has been released from custody, though Woodfin said he doesn't know if there were any conditions on the release.

The development comes less than two hours after officials canceled a detention and preliminary hearing without explaining the reason for the change.

His lawyer Christi McCoy, who has been pushing for the charges to be dropped, said in a text message Tuesday that she could only confirm that her client has been released.

And now there is the suggestion that Curtis may have been framed:

McCoy said in court that someone may have framed Curtis, suggesting that a former business associate of Curtis' brother, a man with whom Curtis had an extended exchange of angry emails, may have set him up.

When news broke of Curtis being the suspect, the right quickly jumped on what appeared to be his liberal leanings. But something seemed weird about the entire thing. I couldn't finger it, but the whole story just seemed off. Now it appears my suspicions may have been right.

CNN is reporting that an arrest has been made in the bombing of Monday's Boston Marathon. The suspect was identified via numerous videotapes. No further details are available yet, but a nation is anxiously waiting to see who could cause such a horrible act of carnage and for what reason.

UPDATE (2:40pm edt)

Now they are saying no arrest has been made and Boston Police just sent out this tweet

Despite reports to the contrary there has not been an arrest in the Marathon attack.

— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 17, 2013

Sounds like another day of "no one knowing".

We all know that our prison population is growing out of control, yet nothing is being done. Well leave it to a Republican to come up with a most awesome alternative to incarceration - spankings:

A Montana Republican state lawmaker wants to give criminals the option of choosing “corporal punishment in lieu of incarceration.” According to Think Progress, the legislation is being proposed by Rep. Jerry O’Neil and would apply not just to misdemeanor crimes, but to some felonies as well.

The law states that “(f)or purposes of this section, ‘corporal punishment’ means the infliction of physical pain on a defendant to carry out the sentence negotiated between the judge and the defendant.” The law states that the exact nature of that pain shall be “commensurate with the severity, nature, and degree of the harm caused by the offender.”

The proposed law stipulates that the punishment shall be carried out by local sheriffs if the defendant is avoiding jail time or corrections personnel if the defendant is choosing the option to stay out of state prison.

What could possible go wrong here? Well, save the deviants who actually enjoy pain and will break the law just to get their tushys whipped.

Last week a newspaper in New York created a huge uproar when it published a list of registered gun owners in a two county area. The information was legally obtained through a Freedom of Information request and now another county is being added to the list.

Further names and addresses will be added as they become available to a map originally published on December 24 in the White Plains, New York-based Journal News, the newspaper said.

The original map listed thousands of pistol permit holders in suburban Westchester and Rockland counties just north of New York City.

Along with an article entitled "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," the map was compiled in response to the December 14 shooting deaths of 26 children and adults in Newtown, Connecticut, editors of the Gannett Corp.-owned newspaper said.

The next batch of names will be permit holders in suburban Putnam County, New York, where the county clerk told the newspaper it is still compiling information.

Of course the right is still going bat shit crazy over this, declaring it a "violation of rights", despite the fact that information is 100% legally obtained and not protected under any privacy clause.

But I got thinking, then I got into doing some Googling. Here's something I found:

12/19/2012 - Dalton Williams Killed: South Dakota Teen Fatally Shot By Friend Over Paintball Game

12/12/12 - Boy shoots dead friend, 12, with his grandfather's gun while playing after school at his home

Remember during the last Presidential Election, when Barack Obama said that people in the small towns of Pennsylvania "cling to their guns". You should. It has been making a comeback lately.

Well now it looks like the President was correct and the effects are sad:

Police say a costumed 9-year-old girl was accidentally shot outside a western Pennsylvania home during a Halloween party by a relative who thought she was a skunk.

New Sewickley Township police say the girl was over a hillside and wearing a black costume and a black hat with a white tassel. Chief Ronald Leindecker told the Beaver County Times that a male relative mistook her for a skunk and fired a shotgun, hitting her in the shoulder, arm, back and neck Saturday night.

Leindecker told the newspaper that the girl was alert and talking when she was flown to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, about 30 miles away. Her condition was unavailable.

Leindecker says the man hadn't been drinking and he doesn't know whether charges will be filed. New Sewickley police said Sunday that decision will be made in a few days.

An innocent child, wearing a Halloween costume, and now her Halloween, as well as every other one that follows, is ruined. Sure it may have just been an "accident", but responsibility should be the key here. The shooter should have taken the responsibility to know exactly who or what his target was.

Disgusting!

These guys really get around:

Lindsay Lohan told police she was assaulted in her Manhattan hotel room early Sunday morning by a man she met at a night club, police sources said.

According to law enforcement officials, Lohan told police she got into an argument with a 25-year-old man she brought to her room after meeting him 1 Oak in Chelsea.

The argument was allegedly over photos the man took of Lohan on his cell phone while they were in her 15th floor room at the W Hotel near Union Square with some of Lohan's friends

[SNIP]

LaBella was initially charged Sunday afternoon with assault and harassment, but after further investigation police dropped the assault charge. LaBella has since filed a harassment complaint against Lohan.

According to his YouTube page, LaBella ran for president of his business fraternity at the University of San Diego and was a child actor. In police paperwork, LaBella listed his employer as Illinois Congressman John Shimkus.

“While no one from Congressman Shimkus’ office has been contacted by Mr. LaBella following his arrest, he has been an employee in the Congressman’s Washington office," a spokesman for Rep. Shimkus said in a statement Sunday. "Obviously, the Congressman does not condone his actions. As this is a legal matter for Mr. LaBella, the Congressman nor his office will make further comment.”

It pretty much goes with the entire platform for the GOP when it comes to women...

Here's a person that Mitt Romney could get behind:

The world’s most wealthy woman is warning that firms are in danger of having to abandon iron-ore mining in Australia if wages are not cut, pointing out that African miners are “willing to work for less than $2 per day.”

In a video recently posted on the Sydney Mining Club website, 58-year-old Gina Rinehart — who has amassed a $18 billion fortune through iron-ore prospecting — said that Australia could be more competitive by emulating Africa.

This is how out of touch the mega-rich people are. Sure African miners work for $2 day, but aren't there lots of starving people in Africa? How much of the world's money is sent to Africa to help feed these people too? Is Rinehart suggesting this for the people of Australia now?

Of course Rinehart is one of those entitled people. She became so rich the old fashion way - she inherited it! This lady doesn't know the meaning of a hard day's work and has a massive disconnect with the remaining 99.9% of the world. She is the female version of Scrooge.